Collaborative winners - [Left to Right] Grant Corson (Supply Chain Manager – Tongaat Hulett – Maidstone Mill), Clive Soji (Tongaat Hulett – Factory Manager - Maidstone), Kathy Hurley (Executive Director Grower Affairs - South African Cane Growers Association), Jan van Niekerk (Inbound Supply Chain Manager, TSB Sugar), Martin Slabbert (GM Cane Supply, TSB Sugar), Stuart McRae (Project Manager – AGTRIX), Ryan Giles (Special Projects Manger Crickmay and Associates), Peter Lyne (Programme Manager - South African Sugar Research Institute), Andrew Crickmay (MD Crickmay and Associates), John Kiln (MD - SUMIT Solutions).

Absent: Graham Dines (Former Cane Supply Manager, New South Wales Sugar Milling Cooperative), Ben Simelane (RSSC - Cane Supply Manager).

The award-winning entry was submitted by a multi-organisational team that includes the South African Cane Growers Association, TSB Sugar, Tongaat Hulett, Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation, Agtrix, Sumit Solutions and the South African Sugar Research Institute, together with specialist supply chain efficiency consultancy, Crickmay and Associates.

According to Barry Saxton, chairman of the Logistics Achiever Awards judging panel, "the objective of the Awards is to recognise professionalism and excellence in the effective application of strategic, tactical and operational logistics and supply chain management principles, concepts and practices in Southern Africa."

Adjudicating the Awards were representatives from leading logistics and supply chain organisations, including the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Road Freight Association, the South African Institute of Industrial Engineers, the South African Roundtable of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and the Theory of Constraints International Certification Organisation.

"Entries are scored on a number of criteria including: leadership and innovation; quality management; customer satisfaction; business results; operational improvements; sustainability; collaboration; information management; people management; environmental sensitivity; impact on society; and, the caliber of the submission, ending in an overall rating which may include bonus points," explains Saxton.

FREDD now ensures optimised scheduling of trucks from plantation to mill resulting in massive cost savings to the sugar industry.

Vying for top honours against stiff competition, the entry involved detailing the success of an ICT-based vehicle scheduling system, known as FREDD, which is now fully operational within the local sugar industry at four sugar mills owned by three of southern Africa’s top sugar corporations.

"FREDD has had a phenomenal impact on both the South African and Swaziland sugar industry supply chains and is now the main technology platform driving supply chain efficiency improvement in the sugar industry, " says Peter Lyne, Programme Manager, South African Sugar Research Institute.

According to Ryan Giles, Special Projects Manager, Crickmay and Associates, "the South African and Swaziland sugarcane growing industries have over 50 000 registered growers between them, with an increasing proportion of the South African complement being micro-growers. The economic empowerment of previously disadvantaged people is demonstrated by the growing number of black farmers who continue to enter sugarcane agriculture."

In recent years, the profitability of the industry has been compromised by high transport costs, adds Giles. "The fundamental problem was the lack of coordination between the growers, the 1492 vehicles hauling raw sugarcane to the mills and the mills themselves. The challenge facing our team was to implement a system that effectively streamlined this fragmented scenario."

In 2005, after much research into the highly specialised world of collaborative vehicle scheduling software, Giles discovered FREDD, an Australian system that has been successfully servicing that country’s sugar industry for 19 years.

After extensive customisation to suit southern African operating conditions, FREDD is now a fully-functional collaborative tool optimising the movement of sugarcane from plantation, to truck, to mill.

"FREDD has developed a definite personality amongst local farmers and hauliers," Giles says. "Using a standard personal computer linked to the internet, FREDD communicates with every sugarcane truck’s on-board computer, all of which are fitted with a GPS and GSM modem. FREDD constantly monitors the progress of all vehicles while they’re travelling or loading, effectively reducing standing times at mill yards by nearly 70 percent."

Apart from impressive fuel savings due to reduced vehicle idling at the respective mills, FREDD has set new productivity benchmarks within the sugar industry, including cost savings for growers and hauliers from the reduced mill turn-around times in excess of R12.7 million at one mill alone. For the mill owner, savings associated with the reduction in mill stops are estimated to be in excess of R14.7 million per annum, Giles says.

On presenting the FREDD Project its Gold Award, Saxton said: "Their approach integrates multiple skills, disciplines and activities into a seamless and effective solution in which the results are readily apparent."

For Andrew Crickmay, Managing Director, Crickmay and Associates, "winning the Gold Award helps recognise the efforts of a number of different organisations and individuals who, from as early as 2001, at great personal risk, have brought about the necessary change of mindset within the sugarcane growing industry that has enabled FREDD to be the winner he is."